


Killer Queen (Tony Stark Is A Queen (Song) Collection)

by GunpowderGelatin



Series: Tony Stark is a Queen (Song) [1]
Category: New Avengers (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Extremis Tony Stark, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Maria Stark's A+ Parenting, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark Friendship, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-20 20:30:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16562642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GunpowderGelatin/pseuds/GunpowderGelatin
Summary: Natasha Antoinette Stark is a killer queen and the world should know better.How NAS dominated the world.





	1. Gunpowder, Gelatin

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first fanfic, but don't panic and run, I really did my best.
> 
> Timeline:
> 
> 1980: Natasha Antoinette Stark is born
> 
> 1994: Natasha goes to MIT
> 
> End of 1997: Extremis
> 
> June of 1998: Howard, Maria and Jarvis die
> 
> July of 1998: Natasha takes a role as CEO, eighteen almost nineteen
> 
> 2002: Iron man 1 events
> 
> 2004: Iron Man 2 events
> 
> 2006: She return as CEO
> 
> 2008: Battle of New York

 

 

> **_She keeps Moet et Chandon_ **  
>  **_In her pretty cabinet_ **
> 
>  

When she was six, her first circuit board was on Mr. Stark's workshop table, glistening eyes looking at her with wonder and interest.

Before that ( _'not perfect, not good enough, you need to do better'_ ) marvelous happening, Antoinette was just…. A pretty, little, quiet and well mannered girl ( _'children should be quiet, children should be seen and not listened'_ ).

And that was the big problem.

She was the sole and only heir to Stark Empire.

And she was a _she_.

Everyone just thought, well. She will be a pretty socialite ( _'head down, smile, don't talk, put on your dress'_ ). She will follow the rules ( _'smile, smile, smile'_ ) and let Mr. Stane run everything ( _'I don't like him, Jarv'_ ).

She is just a girl after all, isn't she?

So Jarvis ( _'you is kind, you is smart, you is important_ ') dressed her in expensive pretty dresses, braided her hair ( _'your mother is too occupied, sweet, but she will be here 'lies are bad, Jarv'_ ), put a red bolt on it and smiled ( _'you're my true daddy, Jarv' 'don't say fallacies, Natasha Antoinette Stark', but he always hugged her anyway_ ).

And with her small face up, a press smile in it, she would walk, behind Mr. Stark or in Mrs. Stark's arms ( _so rare, precious moments in front of the press_ ), and, sometimes, when Antonia was bigger, between both of them.

It was like that. Almost every week. After her afternoon classes on Saturday or Sunday, get ready to a gala, or a press conference, or rich people visits who liked to coo over her for five minutes, before forgetting she even existed.

Then, not seeing Mr. and Mrs. Stark more than once or twice in the rest of the time, little moments they used to ask her a multitude of questions about languages, etiquette, history, politics or economy.

She put so much effort on being perfect. But she could never be perfect (' _too little, too delicate, too naive, too_ female')

Because she was a _she_.

Until the circuit board.

In her free time, when nobody was looking at her, she snuck into the workshop. And read the books Mr. Stark kept there. Read, and read, and learned, and felt what home could be like.

So Antoinette _dreamed_. Dreamed about robots who could take care her when Jarvis couldn't, about cars who could fly and mechanical dogs with pretty golden eyes.

Natasha felt the wires in her delicate hands, the pulse of energy above her fingers.

That made her a creator.

So she created.

And Mr. Stark wasn't supposed to know. He would be furious.

He discovered anyway.

He wasn't pissed.

He was _delighted_.

His laugh frightened her more than his shouts.

That night, they both, for the first time, dinner together.

She had her first taste of wine. _Moet et Chandon_ , nevertheless.

It tasted like ash in her tongue.

Antoinette drank three more glasses.

 

> **_'Let them eat cake' she says_ **  
>  **_Just like Marie Antoinette_ **

Then, the pretty girl rised like a rocketship.

After the discover of the circuit board, Mr. Stark (now called _father_ ) started pushing her. Teaching ( _torturing, deprecating, minimalizing_ ) her how to make weapons ( _she wanted to make robots, but he didn't want her to waste her time with silly small things_ ), how to kill without pushing the trigger.

He showed her languages in the rough ( _'use English when in France and French when in England'_ ), how to use etiquette at her favour ( _'be always classy, so when you're not, people will listen'_ ) and how to ignore it completely ( _'be crass with your lovers and delicate with the public'_ ), how to make history, love politics and dominate economy.

Howard didn't taught her how to be shark. He taught her how to be a snake. A slick, smart, venous, _snake_.

So, Antoinette (now called _Toni, a more Male name in that man's world_ ) learned. And she astounded the world. Made weapons thrice as better as her father ( _'keep pushing, put chemicals in there, more, better, bigger, scarier'_ ), and that made him let her, in her small free time, build what she wanted to build ( _'your bots, and AIs and computers can feature at S.I., if you make good, big, scary weapons to help our country_ ').

And they thrived, father and daughter, biggest geniuses in the world. He showed off her, she delighted herself in the spotlight.

Until that strange blue glowing cube was found ( _'I hate it Jarv, my father is possessed and Madonna non lo proteggerà'_ )

(She never protected her, but Italian was comforting, since Aunt Peggy came visit and Mrs. Stark, for the first time, like she woke from a deep slumber, noted her existence)

Then, the once sane, proud, sober man turned into a drunk, crazy, obsessed bastard.

He putted in his head that the Tesseract was a prove of Captain America's survival, that _some superior_ being left that as a clue.

And he was an _atheist_!

So, Toni began to organize everything from S.I. on her own. She did the weapons and the bots and the economy plans. Her father was now just a image.

Howard dove, head first, in his search for the super soldier. And he didn't found anything, so he decided to make a new super soldier.

He _couldn't_ replicate the serum. His trials in apes and monkeys (all highly illegal, but the government throwed a blind eye, because it was Stark) all failed in a way or another.

So, after so many fails, he dove again in alcohol. Somehow, he could blame all this in Antonia. Of course. If she just was a bit more strong, a bit more like a _man_ , a bit less or a bit more smart, everything would be right, wouldn't it?

So, he drank. He drank until he couldn't see shit. He drank until he beat his daughter so much, she hated him so much she would thorn apart every picture and magazine that showed than together. He shouted at his wife, at his employees, at Obadiah.

He shouted at his Toni when she left to pursue her dreams and engineering degree at MIT at only fourteen (three years before he could, he was jealous, he was burning with jealous rage. How _dare_ she go to college at fourteen when he only got there at seventeen?).

He tried again to replicate the serum, now using for base the trials in Russia on some strange virus and the small robots of the initial trials in medicine.

He succeeded.

Then, he injected in his own daughter when she was sleeping, his first human subject, back from her third year at college, with wonderful stories for Jarvis _about a dark-skinned boy and fantastic classes and magical AIs she was creating_.

She screamed, so high that all the windows shattered.

It was not a super serum, but it was full of small bots made of vibranium and adamantium and anything he could put his hands on.

He called it Extremis I.

She would never recover from it ( _the nightmares hunted her six-month recuperation_ ).

But now Toni was stronger ( _traumatized, older, wiser_ )

And Stark men may be made of iron, but Howard would make sure Stark women would be made of _diamond_.

Two days after she was discharged, he died, carrying Mrs. Stark and her _real_ father with him.

Six months later, against everyone expectations, Antoinette was in a podium, in front of everyone who was anyone on the press, barely eighteen, crimson lipstick on ( _Jarvis favorite color, Jarvis was dead, she doesn't have anyone anymore_ ), black dress, high heels. Plans for weapons mixing in plans for robots like DUM-E in her hands, black hair in curves like a halo.

"I'm taking over as CEO of Stark Industries" She told them, instead of saying Obadiah programmed words, of saying she would let him roam free and use Howard's, _her_ legacy as his own.

She wasn't Toni Stark, the innocent, genius, wide eyed girl anymore. Neither was she Antoinette, the good, well mannered, child socialite.

She was Natasha Stark, _killer queen_.

Her devious smile for the screaming press was splattered in every front page the next day.

 

 

 

> **_A built-in remedy_ **  
>  **_For Kruschev and Kennedy_ **
> 
>  

Natasha was loved by the public and hated behind closed doors.

Media darling, army's golden girl. Her weapons killing U.S. enemies, her sharp tongue killing anyone who dared cross her.

She had learned how to be rough with the board, made them fear her, jealous her. Her projects making the stocks flow out of the chart, the constant presence of Obadiah behind her, now being her new pushing support.

Of course, besides Rhodes ( _'fratello, long time, no see')_ , her new badass P.A. ( _'Pepper is such a better name than Virginia, sweetpie'_ ) and her driver ( _'Never change, Happy'_ )

The most rich woman in the world was in a streak.

That didn't mean exactly that her persona, the person behind the red lipstick and the smart jokes was okay.

 _No_.

Being the politicians favorite person was exhausting.  She was born in 1980, in the end of the Cold War, but that did  ** _not_** mean she wasn't seeing a divided world in 1998.

And she made weapons.

For U.S.

Who had  _no_ consideration about anything or anyone.

Natasha loved her country, but she wasn't a blind patriot. U.S. was full of prejudice and superiority complexes.

Calm Russia wasn't going to be simple, not when they had so much _petroleum_ that she _needed_ , and they couldn't had access to any of her weapons.

And Obadiah just kept pushing, and pushing and _pushing_.

So, overwhelmed as she was, Natasha drove for a path she never wondered she could: Alcohol.

Bottles and bottles of vodka and scotch made their way into her solitary hands. Her cold body made her even more sad, so Natasha got out. She partied, and built, and _drank_ , flirted and hooked up and had lots of sex with everyone she thought pretty or hot, _gender-blind_.

The conservatives could bite her ass.

Nobody attacked her directly. They really needed her. But she heard the whispers, the giggles. One glare of her, though, and everybody would shut the fuck up.

She lived for the party and the work. J.A.R.V.I.S. ( _'I need you Jarv, embodied or not' 'I'm not leaving, mistress'_ ) would often talk to her, but she needed more than him. She needed an equal. She needed a _family_  ( _she_ _needed Jarvis_ ).

Pepper loved her, but she had so much more to care for, and Rhodes was always so far…. Obadiah wasn't there for her as person, just for her _persona_.

Extremis I was in her body, but dormant. Except for making her brain a hundred times faster, her body leaner and prettier and younger and stronger, and her hands free of burns, her insides free of sickness, her mornings free of hangovers, it didn't give her any special powers.

It made her more _reckless_ , if anything.

"God, Tones, you're full of _crap_ " Rhodey sighed "I deserve this, I'm stuck with a thirteen year old teenage, god helps me, I swear, I'm gonna jump off that window one day and you will never heard of me again. I feel like a mom, and _I AM ONLY TWENTY-EIGHT_."

"You are almost thirty already? Uh oh, old man, you should be settling" Natasha laughed, her legs up her couch, the video call in a hologram in front of her.

"I can't settle, you know why? Because I have a stupid-ass sister that will video call me three in the morning to tell me that she had sex with that creepy Killian guy"

"Jealous, platypus? You know I don't do the fricket-frack with friendsssssss" She sing-songed, a little tipsy "You know I love you, just not that way"

Rhodes definitely didn't rolled his eyes. Did she had any respect left in that house?

"I don't want to make the 'fricket-frack' with you neither, heathen, but….. Killian? That guy has serious problems"

"Besides his lack of creativity in bed, and his horrible taste in tech, and his too gelled, I-am-momma's-boy, hair, I don't see his creepiness"

"He remembers me too much of a guy in my English 101 class, but without big eighties glasses, long blonde curled horrible hair and rotting teeth. That guy was a serious creep, the creepiest guy I ever met"

"Creepy Creepister Clone Killian? Maybe it's a brother or something" She shrugged "Maybe it was a clone, a multiverse experiment…. I just find Killian less boring than Hammer, and they both are at each party that I go"

"Because they are _creepy_ creeps. They are fucking stalking you, you should get a restraining order, and save both of us, and Pepper, from the headache"

The name of her P.A. stung a bit. They had a bit of a affair beginning, before Natasha destroyed everything with her lack of tact.

They barely talk now.

They let the silence reign a bit, the barely-woman looking at her StarkPad, at new designs for the Jericho, and its continuation, the Eden (' _it is supposed to reverse the world to a better place_ ').

"Rhodey……" The soldier looked at her, raising both eyebrows "…… When you are coming to visit me?"

He sighed, like he was talking to a small, pouting, child.

"The world needs me now, Toni" ( _'I need you too, I need you so much, I need you to stop me, please fratello'_ ) "You can't be egoistic like that. We talked about that. And you shouldn't be doing the same? Making weapons….. for us?" (' _You're using me, you're using your sorella_ ')

He sighs again, and a voice call him in the background. They had this fight over and over again, but Rhodes just came to visit with requests from the military…. And she needed someone, she needed someone so much.

"I have to go, Natasha, go do your job instead of lazing around. And don't call me until you dealt with your child manners" He basically spattered, before ending the call.

He didn't look once at her unshed tears, or how her hand curved around a bottle, drinking herself away.

Besides, it wasn't like somebody cared at all.

 

 

 

> **_At anytime an invitation_ **  
>  **_You can't decline_ **
> 
>  

When she entered the jet with Rhodes, she mostly ignored the soldier. He was a official, nothing more. He was in his uniform and everything.

The man decided her coldness was just pettiness, and rolled his eyes, sitting as far as he could, as Natasha drank a glass of champagne and flirted with the board crew.

She didn't talk to him until she was obliged in front of the presentation. She was hurt, she was deeply hurt and pained by his words.

The woman smiled, red lipstick on and hair down, tailored black suit with red blouse and high heels. She put her sunglasses on, smiled at the camera, and presented world's worst fear, missiles inside of missiles inside of missiles inside of more missiles.

She should so have called that thing _Matryoshka_ , if not because of U.S. fragile ego.

Then it happened. In a moment she was in a kind of armored truck, raged with Rhodes, and than she was in the floor.

Extremis made her stronger, but not enough to resist an explosion. Her body repelled the major injuries over big pieces of bomb tossed at her, but fragments of shrapnel entered her chest.

But she would only know that one week later, after she woke up from that horrible, awake, painful, surgery.

Sited in a table, her heart only functioning because of a car battery, she decided don't do weapons anymore.

She would break that promise two days later, when strange, terrorist men waterboarded her. Then and there, Natasha promised kill each and every one of them.

So, she started building a armor.

She would be fine.

She was a _killer_ before she was a queen.

Three months after, she got out alive. Her inviting voice made everything simpler in the plan, a invitation nobody could decline. Nude men don't have weapons.

Nude men who wanted to rape women also really should check if they have _weaponized armors._

Or they may lose their _dicks_.

No one was alive, not even Yinsen, another death she would remember until she was old and grey, another casualty of her life ( _like Jarvis, where are you Jarvis? I need you more than ever)_

Roaming through the desert was difficult, but getting rescued was far worse.ever

( _"How was the fun-vee? Next time you ride with me, okay?)_

At least, now no-one could say that her heart was dark. Poisoned, maybe.

Dark? No.

It was _gleaming_.

And would gleam forever.

She tapped the arc reactor twice.

It could be worse.

 

 

 

> **_Caviar and cigarettes_ **
> 
>  

"I'm sorry Tones, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, so so so sorry. I will do anything, but please, pardon me" Rhodes begged, in the hospital.

She wasn't very inclined to say no. She loved her _fratello_ , and after so many weeks on Afghanistan, Natasha had time to think.

"I just want you to help me escape from this hospital, and take some months to stay with me, at the Mansion" She pledged "And never do that again, never, platypus"

He sighed, and hugged her.

"I think I can do this" He shrugged "Fair enough. Let's go. If you don't want show the world your little arc reactor, you don't need to"

He just stayed until she closed S.I. Weapons Division.

Guess his loyalty leaned with the army, after all.

She got home, and went directly to her workshop, to improve the armor. She needed to be safe. At all times. She did a new arc reactor, put the older in a safe place. It was her heart, after all.

Pepper tried to enter and talk to her, but her override codes were negated over and over again.

(" _I'm not giving my suit to the army, Rhodes" "I won't ask, if you reopen the weapons manufacturing", she ended the call)_

Them, she began to tinker with the robots she had in her blood, the small bots that Howard imposed on her life.

Natasha wasn't a bioengineer, but she knew the basics ( _and she was a genius_ ).

Contacted Dr. Hansen, took information about the virus and the nanobots.

Turn out that the nanobots were deactivated.

Natasha could do anything she wanted with them.

So she started researching. For now, a normal armour would be enough. But, some day, she would _be_ her armour.

And no one would touch her anymore.

Her money took her far. She constructed an armour around herself, and kept her work going.

But press was starting to get pushing and irritant, and Obadiah was clearly keeping her in the dark, even if he knew she was fine ( _Natasha called a few times a week to keep posted, so she was mildly surprised, but suspect when a party in her name was given without the guest of honor_ ).

She entered the party, owning it. Face up, hair down, red lipstick on and devious smile in her lips.

A high-neck tick golden dress kept the arc reactor far, as she smooches her way into the place, taking a glass of champagne in one hand, while the other touched coldly her "partner" in the arm.

"Toni, I was not expecting you here" His voice was faking his joy. He was obviously not pleased. "Thought you were recovering"

Her smile could freeze the hell.

"Oh no, darling, I'm as well as I ever been. Fantastic, I dare say" She winked, before laughing high-pitched "I'm also feeling like I could use a party, and some reporters too"

She left him behind, as she turned to the vultures.

"I'm alive, I don't suffer from PTSD or anything, I'm not reopening S.I. Weapons Division, and that is that" She smiled "Any other questions will have to wait until my adorable P.A. come with decent quotes, what I would do without a little Pepper, my friends?"

They laughed in courtesy ( _vultures, all of them_ ). Natasha smiled her way into conversations here and there ( _"Glad to be back" "What you would do without me, babe?" "You're adorable"_ ), for five or six hours before leaving, claiming dizziness from abstinence ( _another round of fake laughter and giggles_ ).

A bottle of whiskey in her hand to wash the taste of caviar of her mouth and a non-lighted cigarette in the other to stop herself from screaming, she could be confused with a hooker in the middle of the dark alley she entered to escape the panic attack.

But what she was after all, if not a media whore?  
  
  
  



	2. Dynamite with a Laserbeam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I am Iron Man"

> **_Well versed in etiquette_ **

 

Natasha was a strong woman. No one could deny that, principally after she started using her suit to fight terrorism around the world.

Not that anyone knew it was her, but well.... 

Why they had _her_ weapons anyway?

Oh, Pepper told her.

( _while she was about to fly, maybe, but not a problem, her P.A. would recover from the shock_ )

But, when she stride down to her kitchen, and see Obadiah Stane there, all fake smile, with a devil glint in his eyes, looking directly at her arc reactor, barely covered by a sport bra, she wanted to run.

Run to the mountains and never come back because her gauntlet was in the basement and she didn't have a weapon and  _god Stane is big and not in a dirty way._

"Well, well, well" He laughed "Look at what I see here"

"A step behind, Stane, you're not welcome here" She hissed "Pepper told me _everything_ "

"So she better runs, if she knows something. If your little P.A. runs fast enough, I might not catch her. But it might be a little late for you, Toni"

The woman took a step back, fumbling to the couch, squirming for a weapon, a gun,  _anything._

"Don't you dare touch me" She said in a low tone "I will scream"

"Don't be such a fool, child. Your heart will be better off with me. You never had one, in principle" He cackled "Just a frigid, heartless, cold, _bitch_ , since your stupid _drunkass_ of a father get himself killed"

She didn't have any lost love for her dead father, but only she could talk about him.

_In her head, anytime she wanted, but Stane could not._

"I don't have a doubt you were inconsolable" Natasha rolled her eyes. ( _He probably orchestrated everything)_.

"He was a drunk ass that last few years, but I was lucky I had _you_ , a precious mind to substitute that fool, my _diamond in the rough_ " Obadiah sighed, but the expression lacked any emotion "It's a pity you had to go and fuck it all, wanting to control everything and then, destroying S.I."

"I didn't destroy it, I improved it. I won't be a murderer anymore, Stane"

"It's a pity that I don't give a shit about being a killer" He pushed his hand into her chest and picked up the arc reactor "When I ordered the hit on you, I was worried that I was killing the golden goose. But, you see, it was just fate that you survived it, leaving one last golden egg to give. You really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? Your father, he helped give us the Atomic Bomb. Now what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?" He smiled, walking off the apartment as she gasped in horror.

As soon as he closed the door, she started to crawl. She needed to get into her workshop, she needed to pick up her heart.

The pain was unbearable, but she couldn't let him destroy the world, she couldn't let him destroy Pepper and Rhodey and Happy. She couldn't let him destroy her legacy.

"Jarvis, keep me awake, please, darling" She was suffocating, she was suffocating and she couldn't stop it "Please dear, just talk to me"

"Mistress, I wouldn't indicate this course of action" If an AI could sound worried, Jarvis certainly would "Do you want me to call Miss Potts?"

"No, no…. Just keep me awake until a reach the workshop"

"I'll keep talking about the plans for the Marie II"

As the desembodied voice talked, she kept crawling. Crawling her safe way until she reached the elevator,  and entered it. Then, paralyzed because of the pain, the Extremis barely stoping the shrapnel, she leaned on the wall, waiting.

"Jarvis, open the safe and deactivate True Heart's protocol of security"

"Yes, ma'am"

It was a ironical name, in the beginning, but not anymore.

She picked up the reactor, putting it in her chest with a clank. It was just her lucky that her hands were small enough for this.

It took barely two minutes for it to light up, and she ran to the new unfinished armor, putting it as fast as she can, and float away, to search for Stane.

"He on a S.I. factory, not to far, ma'am"

"Take me there, sweetheart"

She paused over the roof of the factory, aiming her repulsors at the big, horrible machine that barely resembled her beautiful creation, who was aiming it repulsors to Pepper and some agents, dressed only on black.

Natasha didn't forget S.H.I.E.L.D. Initiative, or its role in Howard's decadence.

And she would be damned if she let them corrupt her with their glowing cube of hell.

"Can't you just stay fucking dead?"

Well, she would have time to resolve the Secret Agents Problem later.

"No, I cannot, my dear terrorist" Her voice from inside the armor sounded male, and mechanical "I hope you burn in hell"

"Not if I can't take you there first, bitch"

Her repulsors wouldn't be able to destroy the other armour. It was bigger and bulkier and heavier.

"You have to stop stealing my tech, you dumbass"

"How ironic, Toni! Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever! And now, I'm going to kill you with it!"

"I really think you won't, not with this trash"

"You had a great idea, Toni, but my suit is more advanced in every way!"

"How'd you solve the icing problem?"

  
"Icing problem?"

  
"Might want to look into it."

"Pepper, overload him" She screamed through the sound system as soon as she could make the other man fall. "Let's send him to space"

"How?"

"Use all energy in the building, overload the arc reactor" her voice was strained "Now!"

The man went higher and higher in the sky, uncontrollably, the suit overloaded. The crash of the frozen thing happened only five minutes late.

"Now, let's take care of the Secrety Smarty Agency situation we have in there"

She dropped out her faceplate, looking at the agents.

"Which one are you? C.I.A.? F.B.I.? S.W.A.T.? S.H.I.E.L.D.? You know what? It doesn't matter. Let me take this to the mansion, I won't deal with you here"

 

> **_Extraordinarily nice_ **

 

She sat in her couch, trying to look less tired and beat-up. But, being the young adult, just scratching 23, that she was (doesn't matter all the trauma, in the end, Toni knows she is just a child in this big bad world, learning to walk the steps of her father), Natasha could only looked distressed.

"Enter, sit down, relax… Or not so much, as we really know that I don't really like any of you"

The woman smiled, pointed teeth bared ( _one of the best choices of her MIT days, the vampire look is cool, shut up Rhodes_ ) behind red smudged lipstick.

The man leading the people ( _not all of them, most of the agents went to debrie or something like this_ ) was slightly bigger than her ( _but then, who wasn't?_ ), light-brown hair, starting to be bald. Sunglasses, suit, he looked straight out a " _MIB - Men in Black_ " movie.

"If you are here to clear my mind, I _swear_ …-"

He must have caught the reference, because he rolled his eyes so hard, that she wondered if they hadn't get stuck in the back of his head.

"I'm Agent Coulson, and I'm here in the name of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enfor-"

"-cement and Logistics Division, or, as you acronym it, _S.H.I.E.L.D_ " She completed.

"I'm sure I shouldn't be surprised that you know about us"

"No, not after the glowing cube of hell and my father, no, you shouldn't."

"I'm here mostly because I wanna debate about Iron Man, as the media is calling your armor, the ' _glowing cube of hell_ ' as you call it, can be discussed in another period of time"

"Before we start what I think will be the most pointless conversation in my entire life, I'm determining two things: one, I'm not going to make other armors, for other people to use. It's my armor, my work, my technology and I'm not above killing you to preserve it" She breathed, touching briefly her arc reactor "Two, I'm not going, at any way or form, work for your super secrety agency."

Agent Coulson sighed, as he was expecting this, but wasn't keen to the conversation that would follow.

"We mostly want to keep you safe, as Iron Man connection with S.I. is explicit" He sighed again "The press will be crazy"

"And it's for that exactly motive that I have one of the best P.R. and lawyers team of the world. I don't need _S.H.I.E.L.D_ , not as much as you need _me_." The woman pointed to the arc reactor and to her armor in general "This is not _your_ business"

"The issue is that it is my business, Miss Stark. You are a superhero now. You are a soldier, as much as anyone in the war."

"I. am. not. a. _SOLDIER_!" She slammed her gauntlet in the center table. It broke. The shards of glass made a mess in the carpet. She was _not_ her father. "I'm not fighting for _you_ , or for _U.S_., or for myself. I'm fighting for people who were damaged because of _MY_ weapons. I'm fighting against terrorism, and slavery, and poverty, and _war_. So no. I'm not a _damn soldier_."

"But a superhero, if I ever saw one" He said, unimpressed by the table.

"I'll not discuss this with you anymore. Think what you may about me. But hack my systems again, or harass Pepper with your stupid things - _I know you did, don't bother in denying_ \- and I will _hunt_ you."

"If we are in agreement, may I see you in the press conference tomorrow morning?"

Natasha felt the fight leaving her, and sighed, massaging her temples.

"Yeah, yeah. Go know, I need peace of mind and you are _blowing_ it"

The agents left as they came, silent and sneaky and slimy.

Gosh she needed a long shower.

When this became her life?

The press was her big turn. She woke up tired, and she definitely didn't want to do what she had to do, but that wouldn't matter for the reporters.

So, Natasha covered her bruises and the purple bags under her eyes with make-up, let her hair down and her crimson lipstick on.

"This is how we're thinking is best" Said Coulson, the epitome of righteousness, looking at her P.A. ( _she desliked the redhead's role so much now, and she was filled with shame because Pepper was doing it for her_ ) "You'll tell them Iron Man is your bodyguard, and that it want to keep its identity a mystery, because its family or something, right Miss Potts?"

"Indeed, Mr. Coulson. Also, here are the cards, so you can stuck to the story and don't slip up anything"

"So you two basically decided _everything_ and I'm just supposed to follow the _instructions_ of a man I don't trust or know?"

They smirked at her, but she wasn't joking. Was she supposed to follow things? Who did they thought they were? Pepper's patronizing attitude was getting very, very boring at this point.

They didn't even ask if she wanted to tell people the truth, they didn't ask if she was scared ( _yes she was, but nobody_ cared), and Rhodes was there suddenly, pushing her to a corner, looking like he didn't even _leave_ her because of _weapons_.

"W-what are you doing here? I thought you had left for good" (' _you left your sorella for weapons, we both know this_ ')

"I know and I am sorry, Tones. But you need me-" (' _yes I do, but not for this, not because you think I'm defenseless'_ ) "-, so I am here"

"To stay, or to run again when I don't give the government my technology?" The man sighed.

"I may tell you to considerate it, but Tones, I'm here in your behalf. Brother and sister, forever. Remember?"

"Brothers and sisters don't leave each other because of weapons. They don't use each other to rank up in the _military_." It was a low blow and she knew that, she just didn't care ( _not anymore_ ).

"I was wrong about it, Tones, and you know that I'm sorry. Can we please pass through this and talk about what's happening?"

She sighed. Rhodey did a lot of shit in between this last few years. But he was, after all, her brother, who had been here for bad and worse and even _worse_ , when she was drunk and banged and drugged and utterly _alone_.

"'Kay. But if you do another stint like this again, I will shove my high heel so far up your ass-"

He laughed, and suddenly, Natasha wasn't stressed. The press didn't exist anymore, neither Pepper or Coulson or _S.H.I.E.L.D_. or Iron Man or her father.

"So, I doubt you'll be following the Scary Secretaries Plan. So, what you're doing?"

She rolled her eyes, leaning against the wall.

"You know me so well, platypus. Think I will ditch the cards, and go with the flow"

"Not your best idea, sorella, but it might go well…. Just don't blow anyone, ok?"

"As I said in MIT: You're not cutting my sex with all your ' _big-brother-in-army'_ aura." Rhodey facepalmed as Natasha deadpanned.

"Anything you say, but you still are too young for this. Not the sex part, god know you're doing it since you grew _boobs_ , but the superhero thing. You're only 22, sorella." He sighed again" I worry about you."

"I know you do, darling" She had the decency to look ashamed as she hugged him "But I'm a big grow-ass woman. I also have the big suit of weaponized armor, soooo….."

He rolled his eyes fondly, but slightly pushed her to the door who would lead them to the press nonetheless.

"Destroy them, minx" He winked, and climbed the stairs, saying a few words to the press and standing aside, in her right side as always.

She followed, and in less then two minutes spot her worst nightmare ( _Christine Everhart, one of her old, burned to the ground, flames_ ) between the reporters.

Natasha didn't stutter, though, her press smirk glued to her face.

"So we meet again, me and you, you and me, same old pals" They laughed at her quip, as always, and it sounded fake, but she would get through "And some new ones too. But, you know dears, the elders first."

She pointed at one of the reporters, one who was in her CEO event, all this years before. He was tall, had a handsome too-white face, with blue/green/hazel/something eyes and honeyed hair.

"You! What's your name? I think I remember you from my CEO press release, but I'm getting older, you know" Natasha laughed as she tapped her temple, and the press giggled ( _what a bunch of puppets, the muppet show is less fake)._

"My name is Kermit Smith, I work for the Shadow Weaver" ( _oh my gosh his name is Kermit don't let me call him frog oh my holy christ)_

"You may ask, darling" She winked at the man, who couldn't be more than a few years older then her. He kept his composure, but laughed a bit. It didn't sound fake, as she thought it would ( _but she still dubbed him Kermit The Frog in her mind)._

"Well….. As the first, I have to ask what everyone is itching to discover: What is Iron Man, as the flying hot red and golden armor was dubbed by the media, connection to you?"

She breathed deeply. This should be easy. She should just deny everything. Say that he's just her bodyguard or something. An AI. A not-sentient beginning.

But she hadn't much to protect.

She could take care of herself  _(she managed very well between Rhodesin in the army and not Pepper, the redhead could choke on her patronizing)._

Pepper orchestrated this, so she would be safe ( _or not, but now she had S.H.I.E.L.D to protect her, and Toni wasn't sure if she want a P.A. who conspired with S.H.I.E.L.D, or a friend for what it matters_ ), and Happy would be cared off ( _she would make sure no one would lay a hand on her loyal bodyguard)_

Rhodes could take care of himself, he was in the Air Force and they were just mending bridges.

Jarvis secured the tower. Lies have short legs, so eventually someone would know, and that would bring so many _problems_.

And if Iron Man ( _or woman, as she should be dubbed_ ) was responsible for any damages, the price would be here to pay and the fault would be hers to take anyway.

She breathed again.

"You could say that" Natasha smiled, her best press smile, and she could almost scent Pepper's sigh of utter disappointment in the sidelines.

As if the redhead was her mom or something. Her mom was dead, her short moments of affection dead with her, and even if she was grateful to Pepper, it wasn't the woman's place to act as she could control the brunette, not as friend and not as P.A.

 

> **_She is a killer queen_ **
> 
>  

"I am Iron Man"

\-----------------Some Hours Later-------------------

" _Iron Man, now Iron Woman_?" ~ NY Times

" _Natasha Stark: Villain or Hero? A Study in the Woman who Revolutionized Technology"_ ~ Vanity Fair

" _Merchant of Death or Servant of Peace? The Iron (Wo) Man Journey In the Middle East"_ ~State of NY

" _The Iron Armor is the Best Weapon Ever Produced: We Can Tell You Why_ " ~MIT Journal

" _From Stark Prodigious Heir to Iron Queen: 15 S.I.'s CEO Big Moments in the Last 15 Years_ " ~Buzzfeed

\------------------Two Years Later--------------------

"No, Jarvis, you _cannot_ be Skynet"

"May I ask why, boss? Skynet was a powerful AI. Also, you like to say everything is possible."

"Skynet is evil, dear. And I don't wanna go to the Congress about my tech ever again, not after last month debacle."

"It's not evil if it's doing good for people, you said that, boss"

"But it was a dictator!"

"Some would debate the Stark Monopoly is also a capitalist dictator, boss"

As she was creating a retort good enough for the sassy AI, or possibly ban him from ever again watch sci-fi movies, she fell in the floor, clutching her chest.

"Boss?" Jarvis sounded distressed.

"I-….Wha-... What's happening?" Her breath was suspended, and she had to put a hand on the wall to stabilize herself.

"May I run a body scan, boss?" The AI pointed one camera at her, and she leaned against the wall.

"Yeah, baby boy" She ruffled a bit "What you momma have here?"

The AI was silent, as if he was hesitant.

"It seems like…. It seems like you have palladium poisoning your blood, boss"

She sighed. Natasha had a degree in chemistry, she should have known…. But wasn't easy like that.

The thing who kept her alive, now was killing her.

"How far?"

Jarvis was hesitant again, and that didn't made her anymore happy.

"It seems like 30% of you is already compromised, boss"

"Start running simulations, Jarvis. If I go down, I will go down fighting."

Natasha may have some destructive tendencies, but she loved herself, loved her body. So, dying wouldn't be happening.

Not on her watch.

"Should I informe Miss Potts or Mr.Rhodes, boss?"

She sighed. It would be useless to worry Rhodey about that ( _they were finally in good terms_ ) and she and her P.A. weren't in a all that good moment, since the redhead decided it was her mission to boss the brunette around.

And she wouldn't be bossed by Pepper, for a lot of reasons, the first being _she_ _was the_ _boss_ , and a very responsible one ( _Natasha wasn't very good at taking care of herself, but she loved S.I._ )

The second but not last was that _she_ was managing _very well_ before the other woman barged in her office demanding things left and right and correcting a math problem that came from the Economy Office, and not from her, _thank you very much_.

Natasha didn't need Pepper to rise a Weapon Empire, and she certainly didn't need her to rise a Clean Energy one.

Nor she needed her patronizing attitude towards her, that was _in the least_ inappropriate, especially in the front of major shareholders and other businessman and bussinesswoman.

Not because Pepper was her P.A. or a woman, but because professionalism exists, and the redhead couldn't act like a friend in board meetings or anything like that.

It was just….. _annoying. Deeply annoying._

"No, baby boy" She sighed again "Run also the time that I have. I guess that's least than a year?"

If AIs could be worried, Jarvis certainly would be running mad.

"Approximately eleven months, boss."

Natasha chuckled. She would die just after her 25rd birthday, just after her parents death. What an irony.

"Better be safe than sorry, let's drawn up a will, J"

"Okay, Boss"  
  



End file.
